The disclosure of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/925,078, filed Apr. 18, 2007, is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Cooling systems of work machines used in the outdoors, for instance, harvesting machines, and in particular, sugarcane harvesters, typically include at least one box or housing through which an air flow is directed for cooling elements of various systems of the machine. Such housing or housings may contain or be adjacent to one or more heat exchangers. To prevent entry of contaminants and for cooling system efficiency, such boxes are typically sealed, except for air inlet and outlet paths. The air inlet is typically covered by an air screen. Due to the dusty and dirty environments in which such machines are utilized, the air screen will require blow-off of debris, dust and dirt, periodically, or from time to time. Accordingly, some cooling systems include a blow-off apparatus or system for this purpose. Further, some blow-offs utilize an air flow generated by a fan of the cooling system for generating the air flow through the cooler box.
Cooler boxes are typically sealed, except for the air inlet and outlet, and they are often not self-draining. The bottom of cooler boxes can thus accumulate water and dirt, which can reach several centimeters deep, and become foul. When an engine air cleaner receives air through a cooler box, and the air intake aperture is located in a lower region of the box, it is important that no water enter or be sucked into the air filter. This water can also accumulate in the cooler box due to the lack of a drain.
Accordingly, what is sought is apparatus for evacuating water and dirt from a box of a cooling system, that utilizes available air flow of a blow-off for cleaning an air screen of the system and also operates as a sealing during normal operation, and thus overcomes one or more of the problems set forth above.